Volume 3: The First Croton War, Chapter 34: Thurii Diplomatic Incident

Davos pulled a roll of papyrus from his tunic and sneered, “The Thurians are truly forgetful! Fortunately, I still have a copy here!” With that, he handed the roll over. The senators passed it among themselves, and it indeed bore Davos’s promise to grant the slaves their freedom, along with Bourkos’s signature as a witness, and the signatures of the two Thurian generals, Kynogoratas and Neonxis.

Back then, to keep the mercenaries from leaving the Sybaris Plain and to hold the camp, the Thurian generals had agreed to nearly any condition. From their experience, they thought the mercenaries could hardly hold out for long—the more they could wear down the Lucanians, the better. Those two thousand-plus slaves were like meat buns thrown at a dog—no one expected the mercenaries to actually attack the enemy, let alone win.

Now, with the famously thrifty Neonxis in power, he was naturally unwilling to grant freedom to over a thousand slaves. More importantly, if these slaves were made freemen, what about the other mining slaves? They would certainly get ideas. After all, there were eight or nine thousand mining slaves—if a revolt broke out, with Thurii’s current citizen numbers, it would be very difficult to handle. Not to mention the group of freemen still arguing with Thurii over citizenship rights at the port.

So when the papyrus reached Pleisinas, he didn’t even look at it. Steeling himself, he tore it to pieces with both hands: “This is fake! This is fake!”

This brazen and violent act enraged everyone present. The hot-tempered Scombrus was the first to charge over, grabbing Pleisinas and punching him directly, shouting, “You tear it, do you?! You tear it, do you?! Unfaithful Thurians! Thurians who belong in the Underworld!”

One punch, two punches… If others hadn’t pulled Scombrus away in time, Pleisinas would likely have lost consciousness. Now he cried out in fear, “Murder! Murder! Does Amendolara want war with Thurii?!”

“Throw him out of Amendolara!” Davos said with disgust. “And don’t forget to stuff in all the silver from the mining slaves who fled here—the ones we’re redeeming—so Thurii can’t say we stole their property.”

“Yes!” Mesis replied with a grimace. “But we might not have enough money.”

Davos thought for a moment. “Then write an IOU in the name of the Senate of Amendolara. We’ll pay it back when we have the money.”

“But then all the other slaves who fought in the war will probably run to Amendolara!” Cornelius warned.

“Then let them come,” Davos said solemnly. “They helped us win the war against the Lucanians, shedding blood and lives. Just Hades above, may He also witness our fulfillment of the oath we swore to Him.”

“That’s a real bargain for the Thurians!” Mesis said indignantly.

“Breaking an oath made to the gods always brings divine punishment,” Davos replied lightly. He turned to Aristocrates, who had been shocked by the scene along with Hetushu, and said, “Now you are free. You may go wherever you wish.”

Aristocrates, trembling all over with excitement, hadn’t expected their goal to come so quickly. “Thank you, my lord! We… we wish to stay in Amendolara… and… I personally am willing to repay the money Amendolara spent to free us!”

Davos looked at him, saw the sincerity in his words, and nodded approvingly. “Good.”

…

When Pleisinas returned to Thurii, he naturally made a great show of Amendolara’s “crimes,” hoping to stir up public anger.

Amendolara, of course, had its own countermeasures. Through Thurian patients who had come to Amendolara for medical treatment, they spread the story of what had happened in the Senate that day among the Thurian populace.

For a time, the Thurian citizens could not tell which version of the story was true.

But the Thurian Council soon took action. They strongly demanded that Amendolara immediately return the runaway slaves, or else Amendolara would be breaking the alliance—Thurii would not stand by idly.

The Senate of Amendolara refused and reminded Thurii to fulfill the promise they had made: to grant freedom to Thurii’s benefactors—the slaves who had fought.

Thurii then announced a ban on its citizens going to Amendolara. Foreign merchants who went to Amendolara would be subject to heavy taxes when trading in Thurii.

Since Amendolara’s warehouse facilities were not yet built, there were almost no merchants going to Amendolara, though there were many foreign patients—so the impact on Amendolara’s already negligible trade was minimal. Still, Amendolara took action by holding citizen soldier military training exercises along the Saraceno River, making a great show of force that alarmed the Thurian citizens and slaves farming the Sybaris Plain.

Beyond issuing protests to Amendolara, the Thurian Council took no further action. Suddenly, both sides fell silent.

For Davos, he did not want to sour relations with Thurii, but events forced his hand: choosing Thurii would help his future plans to attack the Lucanians but would require breaking his earlier promise; choosing to free the slaves would fulfill his promise but might endanger the alliance with Thurii. Davos believed that if the alliance with Thurii was broken, it could be mended later. But once a promise was broken, the bad impression left on the people of Magna Graecia would be hard to erase, even if that promise was only made to slaves. Keeping his word concerned his own integrity, and even more, the integrity of Amendolara. Many of the new laws enacted in Amendolara relied on the trust of the people and outsiders to be realized. They had to believe that Amendolara would keep its word under any circumstances—that was the foundation of Amendolara as a city-state!

Just as the stalemate between Amendolara and Thurii dragged on, an envoy from Croton arrived in Thurii.

At the end of June, the Senate of Amendolara met to discuss holding a selection competition to choose athletes for the Isthmian Games, to be held the summer after the next Olympian Games. This was one of the four great pan-Hellenic festivals, though not as ancient as the Olympian Games, it was still highly prestigious. Davos and the Senate hoped the athletes would showcase the new Amendolara to the Greek city-states.

Davos even considered going to Corinth with the selected athletes (since Corinth hosted the Isthmian Games). In his previous life, he had neither the money nor the time to attend the Olympic Games in person, but in this era, he could attend as an honored guest and enjoy the most authentic classical athletic competition.

Just as the senators were cheerfully discussing how to organize the selection competition, a shocking piece of news arrived: a great event had occurred in Thurii!

It turned out that the Crotonian envoy had come to Thurii to deliver a complaint. He declared that Thurii’s earlier construction of a city on the site of old Sybaris violated the agreement they had signed with Croton.

Neonxis and the others quickly explained: Because of the Lucanian invasion, Thurii had no choice but to let the mercenaries set up a temporary camp there, which was soon dismantled.

But the Crotonian envoy refused to accept this reasoning, insisting that Thurii had violated the agreement. If Thurii did not want serious consequences for their relations, they would have to pay compensation. The real reason for the envoy’s accusation was this: after Croton ended its war with the Bruttians, its treasury had been drained of much money and supplies. Someone in the city’s Council suggested this move, and given Thurii’s greatly weakened state, the Crotonians thought Thurii would not risk offending a powerful city like Croton by rejecting the demand. At most, there would be haggling over the amount. So the Crotonian envoy presented a huge compensation list.

When the Thurian generals saw the list, they understood at once: Croton hadn’t come to complain—they had come to extort!

The generals burst into an uproar. Especially Neonxis, who, since becoming chief general, saw problems more comprehensively but had not changed his penny-pinching nature. He had been willing to sour relations with Amendolara rather than free over a thousand state slaves, and he certainly wouldn’t tolerate Croton’s extortion. So he said to the envoy, “The Thurian Council needs to discuss this collectively before giving an answer to Croton.”

After the envoy left, Neonxis immediately had Pleisinas secretly inform the public and incite them to protest at the envoy’s lodging. Neonxis’s goal was twofold: first, to let the envoy see the anger and resolve of the Thurian populace, creating conditions for the upcoming negotiations; second, even if they eventually signed a compensation agreement, it would reduce public criticism of the Council.

Neonxis had calculated cleverly, but he never expected that after the previous expulsion of Kynogoratas, the Thurian populace had become even more manic and irrational. Moreover, stirred up by certain individuals, the situation was far beyond Pleisinas’s control.

Those individuals were the descendants of the Sybarites. A hundred years ago, Croton defeated Sybaris, tore down the city, and drove the Sybarites from their homes. A few years later, the Sybarites rebuilt Sybaris and quickly restored its prosperity. When Croton learned of this, they again sent troops to capture Sybaris and completely destroyed the city. The exiled Sybarites, in desperation, sought help from Greek mainland city-states, and eventually Pericles of Athens answered their call, urging all Greeks to rebuild Sybaris. So the elite of Athens and immigrants from all over flocked to the Sybaris Plain and built Thurii. But soon, conflict erupted between the Sybarites and the immigrants, because the Sybarites wanted Thurii to be a city of the Sybarites. This was naturally unacceptable to the other immigrants, and a bloody clash followed. The Sybarites were expelled. However, the Sybarites were the local powers, and a few secretly remained. In their hearts, Croton was the mortal enemy that had destroyed their homeland and brought them to this state. This hatred was passed down through generations. When the opportunity arose, how could the descendants of the Sybarites let it pass?

Over a thousand frenzied citizens—how could a handful of soldiers stop them? They stormed into the lodging and brutally beat the Crotonian envoy. By the time Neonxis heard the news and arrived with a large battalion of guards, the envoy was already dead.